Macworld Expo: Color freak
Summary: Demonstrations of Xrite/Pantone's ColorMunki Photo color calibration package at Macworld Expo brought out the color freak in me. The package offers an interesting piece of hardware and a software with an easy-to-use interface that looks to take the sweat out of printer and monitor calibration.
ColorMunki Photo was released earlier in the year but I hadn't had a chance to see it in action. I admit that I once worked in the color calibration industry, so I'm a soft touch for a demo.
(If you don't get what the deal is about color calibration, it's the search for ways to improve the consistency and accuracy of your color devices, such as a monitor and a printer, so that what you see on one device you may get on hardcopy. It's not easy technology, nor inexpensive. The ColorMunki Photo has a list price of about $500; and it's around $400 online.)
The black plastic ColorMunki device is like the Swiss army knife of color calibration. It looks a tape measure. But it's powerful.
The device's integrated spectrophotometer can calibrate a monitor in one setting of its dial and handle your printer with another. Flip down a little hinge and it can read the color of a physical object. Point it at the screen and it can calibrate a projector. It even has its own calibration reference swatch inside its housing, a very nice feature.
The software is straightforward and guides the user through the complicated calibration process. The software talks to your monitor and for some, it can make the adjustments for you (certainly true for current Macs and the Apple Cinema display). In the demo by product manager Steve Rankin, I found it quick and easy to calibrate an iMac, hanging the device over the monitor with a cloth sling.
Afterwards, we went through the steps to calibrate a printer. The procedure was very understandable. I've used earlier printer calibration systems and ColorMunki Photo one avoided a number of tricky steps and didn't require extra pieces of hardware that could get lost.
In addition to the calibration modules, the software offers a number of interesting tools for pulling colors palettes from digital photos and relating those colors to existing color collections from design houses.
Reading the message threads in some discussion groups online after the demo, there appears to be some issues with this product and Windows systems. On a Mac, it all seemed to work — go figure.
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Talkback
I thought I would check your conclusion
Since you have been known to blatantly lie about Windows in the past, I thought I would check your conclusion. 30 seconds later, I had all the proof I needed that you were once again lying and that on a Mac, things do [b]not[/b] just work, go figure.
[url=http://www.thinbits.com/2008/05/colormunki-pretty-much-doesnt.html] Mac user is disgusted with colormunki [/url]
Some interesting quotes from the article and the comments:
[i]The root of the problem is that when there is a failure, the software just says "error" without giving the user any feedback on what exactly was wrong.[/i]
Error? But I thought it just worked on a Mac? Macs don't need good error messages because errors never happen... or do they?
[i]To summarize, the product was a complete failure for me on multiple machines and multiple printers and I cannot recommend it to anyone.[/i]
It failed on all his Macs.
The first comment was interesting because he had no problems with the software. Guess what OS he uses. One guess. :)
[i]Using 1.02 software, the install went smoothly. Upon restart, my system (Vista Home Premium PC with dual core cpu, 4 gigs ram) was a little squirrelly. Apps took longer than usual to load, and I got a bit nervous. Things settled down after five minutes or so, and then I got to work profiling some old Epson Luster paper I've had lying around.
To cut to the chase, I am stunned by the quality of the final print. Its really great.[/i]
But you keep telling us that OS X just works and Vista never does!
[i]I have had similar experiences with an 24' imac[/i]
Yet another failure on the Mac.
There is good news in the end. A representative from the distributor posted a comment and it turned out that the likely cause of the problem was a driver setting on... the Mac!
[i]I am from DES the master distributor of the X-Rite products in Australia and i am amazed at the coments here as they are made by people who have not contacted us.
The comment left by Mark on the 1st of june is a classic as i went and saw him and fixed his issues as [b]he had wrong driver settings in his mac[/b] and i have found that 99% of peoples issues with this product is the settings they use[/i]
Care to comment David on how Macs just work, even when they don't? :)
...and I checked yours....
"stretched" the truth - if not out and out distorted it.
The problems you cite for the Mac user had nothing to do
with OS X and everything to do with bad documentation of
the calibration software and/or the inability of the
customer to follow the instructions.
Other Mac users, who interpreted the documentation
properly had no problems.
Amazingly, the [b]only[/b] OS problems cited in the more
than a dozen posts - - were Microsoft NET issues. You
forgot to mention that. But I'm not surprised.
I invite readers of this thread to follow the link you
provided and draw their own conclusions, instead of just
your distorted conclusions supported by out-of-context
quotes.
Happy New Year - and Non Zealot.... go find some love,
you'll feel better. Really.
It's truly sad..
It's hard to imagine the pathology of someone who feels a
compulsion to find a dissenting opinion, just because
someone actually liked and used an Apple product, or any
product on an Apple computer.
It is offensive, though, to be witness to an accusation of
blatant lying tossed about by someone who lies every time
he posts something with his blatantly false screen name.
No matter how you slice it, it didn't just work
PS Did you actually read the .NET post because either you didn't or your reading comprehension is slightly off. Here it is for those too lazy to look it up themselves:
[i]The Colormunki software installed Microsoft.NET Framework 3.5 onto the PC (I am working with Windows XP media Center Edition). This version of NET Framework is incompatible with DXO !!![/i]
So this was a library that [b]Colormunki[/b] installed that happened to be incompatible with another 3rd party software. Sorry dude, not the OS's fault. :)
Again, just to be clear, things may not have "just worked" for 100% of Windows users but Dave was [b]lying[/b] when he said that it just worked for 100% of the Mac users. Whether the fault lies with Apple or colormunki or even the user, it is a [b]lie[/b] to say it just worked on the Mac.
Obsessive/Compulsive Disorder
OK, you don't like macs. We get it. We got it a long time ago.
But, if you don't like eggplant, for example, would you still eat it?
Here's my prescription for you before you see that shrink:
1. Do not read mac/apple blogs.
2. Never ever ever visit an Apple store.
3. An Apple ad comes on the tv...jump to another station immediately.
4. Avoid looking at apples in the supermarket.
5. If someone should say to you "an apple a day keeps the doctor away," do not kill them.
6. Do not go to Scotland.
... clarification ....
said "100% of the Mac Users", he a said "... a Mac." In other
words, his Mac. Perhaps you need to re-read the last line?
Have a Wednesday, eh!?
Fair enough
[i]there appears to be some issues with this product and Windows systems. On a Mac, it all seemed to work ? go figure.[/i]
he actually meant this:
[i]There appears to be some issues with this product on some Windows systems while on others it works perfectly. Likewise, there appears to be some issues with this product on some OS X systems while on others it works perfectly.[/i]
Of course, had he written that, I wouldn't have posted, you wouldn't have replied, my stalker wouldn't have posted (he has admitted to being obsessed with me), and David would have gotten paid $0 for his blog. It always helps to throw out a factually untrue and derogatory line about Windows in a blog that has nothing to do with OSs because you don't get paid for blogs that get no replies. There ya go David, don't spend all the cash I just made for you in one place. :)
And if you had written...
wrote... ... others it worked perfectly") then, N, you would
have been perfectly correct. Instead you compounded a bit
of fanboyism by Dave with distortion and misrepresentation.
Perhaps you are actually Dave in disguise, acting incognito to
inflate traffic to your postings?
Shhh, don't tell anyone
Hehe, that would be pretty smart if it were true! :)
Maybe David didn't read the specific site...
groups of people haven't had any trouble. It's even possible
that in the seven months since that critical review your cited
was written the software has been updated or patched.
Of course, you shouldn't let anything that doesn't feed your
obsession enter into your thinking.
RE: Macworld Expo: Color freak
RE: Macworld Expo: Color freak
RE: Macworld Expo: Color freak
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RE: Macworld Expo: Color freak